


Curious Things

by anotherfirename



Series: 13th Age Stories [2]
Category: 13th Age (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Gen, another story about my 13th age character from way back in, this time guest starring the Prince of Shadows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-20
Updated: 2015-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:47:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28410390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anotherfirename/pseuds/anotherfirename
Summary: The Prince of Shadows encounters something strange in the Wild Wood.
Series: 13th Age Stories [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2080800





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Cross-posting this from my tumblr for posterity.

There is something in the Wild Wood that doesn’t belong. It moves as quiet as a whisper and leaves no trace behind. Even the fair folk, as ravenous as they are, find nothing that draws their attention. A monster crouches high in the trees and wonders at the emptiness. There is a space in existence where a person should be. Something that is visible only by virtue of being invisible. It’s an easy thing to miss if you’re not paying attention, and most things in the Wild Wood don’t. The monster is curious but unafraid, and it decides to follow.

The man is being followed which should be impossible. Yet he can’t ignore the fact that something is close behind. He is unused to being noticed, and he isn’t sure what to make of the thing following him. It’s sure-footed as it moves from branch to branch, pausing only when the man does. There is something predatory in the way it moves, quiet and a little too daring, but the man doesn’t think it’s a threat. It watches and follows without fear or malice. There are many hunters that live in places like this, but few that are so intent. Despite himself, the man is curious. 

As night falls the monster knows that the quiet won’t last. A familiar being stirs beneath the earth, waking and hungering as it has done countless times before. The monster can feel it calling and pulling like hooks sunk into its heart. The humanity it clings to is stripped away and replaced by another’s hunger. Hunger and servitude, the monster feels its master’s thirst for blood and death as its own. You are mine. A fair folk deep within the Wild Wood screeches in some mockery of singing, and others answer in kind. The monster raises its head and screams to the sky. 

Death triumphs in the Wild Wood. The man is sure now that his follower is a killer. He watches it tear a bear to pieces, but not out of hunger. It is driven by the blood lust of something else that the man can feel probing at the edges of his mind. There are monsters out there in the darkness. They tear apart life and revel in death as they answer to the will of something that should never fully wake. The man finds refuge in the shadows, and he is afraid for the first time in his long memory. Tonight, it seems, even the dead can die. 

Only silence can follow the hunt. When blood is spilled and life sundered the being returns to slumbering beneath the earth. The ones it controls are free, but it’s only a matter of time before the cycle begins anew. The monster, small and delicate looking but far from harmless, looks up at the fading stars and wipes blood from its mouth with the back of its hand. Once it was bothered by the actions it can’t control. For the sake of its sanity those days have long since passed. The monster remembers now what it was doing before its mind was claimed. The curious thing is still nearby, and so it follows again. 

Time doesn’t stand still for monsters or hunts, and the man knows that he must continue. He learned a long time ago that timing is everything, and he can’t afford to be late. Still, he can’t deny that he’s even more interested before. The predator from before follows him again like the night never happened. The change is unnerving, but more than that there is something new there that he didn’t notice before. Or maybe he just never thought to look. The man continues on, and he knows that he will be followed. More than that, he thinks he’s beginning to understand.


	2. Chapter 2

A monster and a man stand at opposite sides of a clearing deep within the Wild Wood. They watch each other with open curiosity and a cautious respect for the things that could go wrong. Their hands are empty, but they are far from unarmed.

The Prince of Shadows looks at the monster and sees a little girl who still believes herself lost. If you were to gather the courage to hold her you would find a child aching for home. 

Bridget Grieve looks at the man and sees a ghost who has been dead for a very long time. If you were to somehow peel back his shredded clothes you would find a hole where his heart should be. 

The girl grins with sharp teeth bared, and the ghost laughs quietly to himself. 

“I think,” the Prince of Shadows says, his voice like wind whistling through empty canyons, “that you will make better use of this than I ever will.” 

He reaches into the pocket covering his empty heart and pulls out a small wooden horse. It was carved according to a fortune teller’s advice who said that it would win a powerful favour. He places it on the ground at his feet as the girl watches with wide golden eyes. 

The ghost says something in a language no longer spoken by the living. Then he turns and walks out of the clearing. 

The girl watches him go and this time does not follow. She crosses the clearing and listens for silence where there should be none.


	3. Chapter 3

A small hand closes around a wooden horse, and a girl starts to remember.


End file.
